Quote:
Originally Posted by johnso29
Look at their route structure. Is it a hub and spoke system? Does SWA operate multiple fleet types? Do they fly around the world? Do they pay for their pilots type ratings?
I never said SWA pilots were not in our peer group. YOU put those words in my mouth. I said Southwest the airline and Delta the airline were not comparable.
They are very comparable. If SWA is apples, then DL is apples, oranges and bananas. But DL still has apples, and lots of them. We can compare those to eachother quite fairly.
They fly 98% <140 seaters for rates similar to our 747/777 rates and W-2's that blow us away. Their vacation is superior, their reserves get more days off per month with a higher guarantee (off a higher rate) than we do and they have dang near 100% scope.
Since many of those things are significantly worse at DL, you would think we would be making significantly more in rates and W-2. Right?
Or are we going to hide behind the myth that they are some crazy enigma lurking in the shadows that doesn't really apply?
By the way they are very much a hub and spoke airline. Much of what isn't has been attributed to the Wright Amendment which essentially forced stops in TX but in any case they have very strong hubs in major markets. Yes they do "non hub flying" but so does everyone. AA does 95% hub flying and their revenue is trashed and their marketshare highly marginalized because of it. SWA moves people, with or without hubs, and does it very well.
And their "pay for type" myth does nothing to create a financial advantage. All new hires still go through full training. The type is just an application stack reducer, nothing more.
They don't have multipile fleet types, but that severely limits their revenue potential. Conversely, not even counting long haul international, many other legacy airlines have a million fleet types in the same seat ranges that do the same missions. That's extremely inefficient and non productive, and its not the fault of the pilot group nor is it their responsibility to subsidize. DL does exactly that, yet despite that fact enjoys higher revenue per pilot than SWA that pays their pilots significantly more with superior scope. How can that be?